Early Understandings of Numbers: Paths or Barriers to the Construction of New Understandings?.

Hartnett, Patrice; Gelman, Rochel

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Peer reviewed

ERIC Number: EJ572814

Record Type: CIJE

Publication Date: 1998

Pages: N/A

Abstractor: N/A

ISBN: N/A

ISSN: ISSN-0959-4752

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Early Understandings of Numbers: Paths or Barriers to the Construction of New Understandings?

Hartnett, Patrice; Gelman, Rochel

Learning and Instruction, v8 n4 p341-74 Aug 1998

Two studies involving 110 and 91 children aged 5 to 7 years show that children's knowledge of counting and addition facilitated their acquisition of a concept not taught in school, that every number has a natural successor (Successor Principle). Even the oldest children could not rank order correctly numbers that contained fractional notations. (SLD)

Descriptors: Addition, Age Differences, Computation, Concept Formation, Constructivism (Learning), Fractions, Primary Education, Prior Learning, Young Children

Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research

Education Level: N/A

Audience: N/A

Language: English

Sponsor: N/A

Authoring Institution: N/A

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Author Affiliations: N/A

Note: Theme issues titled "Cognitive Development: Steps En Route to Educationally Relevant Developmental Cognitive Science." Research partly supported by a National Science Foundation Fellowship and National Science Foundation Grants BNS 89-16220 and DBS-9209741.